BungeeCord is an amazing server software that lets you build a server network. Before I get any further into this article, I want to point out this very important fact: BungeeCord is not a plugin. It also requires 3 or more servers! BungeeCord is a proxy that allows players to jump between multiple different servers without needing to leave, and re-join the server. Many larger servers, like Hypixel, use it for all of their minigames. For example, did you know that your Skyblock island is on its own server? Yep! Your island isn’t just a different world, it is a completely different server from your friend’s island. You will need:
- 2 Minecraft Servers running Spigot/Paper
- 1 Additional Minecraft server (This will be running BungeeCord)
- The BungeeCord JAR
Setting up BungeeCord
To make sure you have the proper setup, please make sure you have at least 3 servers. You can use the free server plan offered by Oddblox to host your BungeeCord server, as it has more than enough power. According to SpigotMC’s BungeeCord wiki page, 1GB is enough to host over 1000 players. To get started, download the BungeeCord JAR, upload it to your Minecraft server, and update the Server Jar File setting in your Startup Parameters page to ensure the server uses the BungeeCord JAR. Restart the server, and head into the config. To add your servers, locate the servers section of the config. You will see an example server there. Use it to set up one of your servers, and copy paste it to add your other server.
You will have to make sure that both of your Spigot servers are set to offline mode, otherwise you will not be able to connect! BungeeCord will handle authentication. You may also want to look into plugins like BungeeGuard, which will block players from joining the servers in your network without going through BungeeCord. Additional configuration steps include the following:
- Enabling the
ip_forward: true option in BungeeCord’s config
- Setting the
bungeecord option to true in your server’s spigot.yml files
- (Vanilla only) Use VanillaCord to ensure connectivity
Additional Information
This guide only goes over the very basics of setting up BungeeCord. A more in-depth version will come later, but for now, please use the resources linked at the bottom of the page. Additionally, as with most Spigot softwares, there are more performance-optimized versions, like Waterfall (a fork of BungeeCord) and Velocity (Built from scratch). Options like Velocity also support more types of servers. We recommend learning BungeeCord first, then move on to the other options, as they are likely very similar to BungeeCord in the way that they are configured.
Documentation is available from these URLs:
